PORTLAND — At no time was there a trace of panic in the Saxons.
Late in the third quarter of their OSAA Class 6A state semifinal game Friday afternoon, South Salem High School’s girls basketball team trailed a deep Jesuit team by three points.
The Saxons kept their heads up, tightened up their defense significantly and – with a big boost of offense from Evina Westbrook down the stretch – methodically put away the Crusaders 58-46 to advance to the 6A state championship game.
The experienced roster played like the veterans of many tough state tournament games that they are.
“It’s a mature team,” South Salem coach Nick McWilliams said. “Most of them played here last year. I think that that experience … year before last, the first game we struggled because we haven’t been here before. Now you know what the big stage is like and we were able to perform better.”
No. 4 seed South Salem (27-1) advances to play No. 3 seed Tigard (25-3) in Saturday’s 3:15 p.m. state championship game.
The Saxons will be playing for their second straight 6A state championship.
“It means almost everything to me being a senior,” said South Salem senior Jordan Woodvine, who scored 16 points and had seven rebounds. “I didn’t come here to lose a quarterfinal game, I didn’t come here to place third.
“I’m coming here for first and second. And I’m coming to compete with my team at the highest level that we can, and I think we have a good shot at tomorrow.”
The Crusaders exploited their deep roster against South Salem early.
Jesuit (24-4) had nine players play 10 minutes or more and at times changed almost everyone on the floor in an attempt to get South Salem – which had four players play the entire game – into an up-tempo game.
“I thought for a while I was watching a hockey game, line changes and stuff,” McWilliams said. “They can do that, but for us, we’re going to stick with what we’ve been doing all year long, especially in a tight game like that.”
South Salem stuck with its halfcourt offense– and relied heavily on senior Jordan Woodvine’s driving and Dani Harley’s 3-pointers – to keep the game close in the first half.
Jesuit led 25-22 at halftime.
Westbrook, South Salem’s all-everything junior point guard, was held to two points in the first half.
But she scored the final five points of the third quarter and 12 of the Saxons’ final 18 points as they put the game out of reach.
“I know Evina and Jordan started out slow, but I knew eventually they were going to pick it up,” said Harley, who scored 12 points. “Evina killed fourth quarter and I knew that was going to happen. I just kept on saying, this is your quarter, this is your half and she outscored us. She’s great.”
It was 39 years between South Salem’s first two state championship game appearances, but the second and third will be consecutive.
And winning another state championship is what people have been expecting them to do all along.
“It’s a pretty crazy feeling to know that we can go back to back, and I think we can do it, we got to continue to play hard and, especially how we played against Oregon City, I don’t think anyone can really beat us,” Westbrook said. “We definitely got to come out strong and not slow how we did today.”
bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 399-6701 or Twitter.com/bpoehler
South Salem’s Alexia Hicks makes a basket from the lane in the Saxons’ 58-46 win against Jesuit in the semifinals of the OSAA Class 6A state tournament at the Chiles Center at University of Portland on Friday, March 11, 2016.
South Salem’s Dani Harley (23) hits a 3-pointer against Jesuit’s Lexi Becker in the Saxons’ 58-46 win against Jesuit in the semifinals of the OSAA Class 6A state tournament at the Chiles Center at University of Portland on Friday, March 11, 2016.
South Salem’s Evina Westbrook (left) shots over Hadley Wilhoite for her only points of the first half in the Saxons’ 58-46 win against Jesuit in the semifinals of the OSAA Class 6A state tournament at the Chiles Center at University of Portland on Friday, March 11, 2016.